Monday, May 28, 2012

Ed and I got back from our anniversary trip to Philadelphia late last night... too late to go to the grocery store. We woke up this morning and tried to order breakfast from our usual bagel delivery spot only to discover that they were closed for Memorial Day. Nooooo!

Since we'd cleaned out the fridge in anticipation of our trip, there wasn't much to scrounge up for breakfast. No milk, half a cup of Greek yogurt, a single solitary egg.... not exactly promising. But hey, we did pack some local strawberries away in the freezer before we left. And then, with just a little Googling, the answer became clear: strawberry muffins!

I thawed two eight-ounce jars of chopped strawberries to use in the muffins - one that we'd just popped in last week and one that had been frozen in light syrup since last June. I was a little worried that the berries that had hibernated in the freezer for close to a year would be kinda funky, but they were actually just as delicious as the day we'd packed them.

I had to make a couple of quick substitutions - yogurt instead of milk, almond extract instead of vanilla - but the muffins were delicious anyway; light and fluffy and bursting with strawberry flavor. Breakfast is saved!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a mixer or by hand, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and almond extract and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and one teaspoon of cinnamon. Add half of flour mixture to butter mixture and incorporate well. Add yogurt and mix, then add remaining flour and mix until just incorporated. Stir in strawberries and divide batter into greased and floured muffin tins. Combine remaining cinnamon with remaining sugar and sprinkle over the muffin batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.